Tour de France: The Wind Beneath Cavendish’s Win

Mark Cavendish celebrates his victory on the 15th stage Sunday at Tour de France in Montpellier, France.

When cyclists race in the winds, teamwork is key. Isolation tires riders and can cause defeats.

On Sunday, in the 15th stage of the Tour de France, a mostly flat 121-mile ride from Limoux to Montpellier, it was gusty and sometimes rainy, and the best team won.

The riders of HTC-Highroad set up their sprinter Mark Cavendish for his fourth stage win in this year’s Tour, and his 19th overall. That’s sixth overall in the history of the 108-year-old Tour. And Cavendish is only 26.

Thus the questions, after the race, about his growing place in cycling history. He answered this way: “My name goes on that list, of course, but my teammates rode for 190 kilometers, and I raced the last 200 meters.”

Cavendish won in 4 hours, 20 minutes and 24 seconds. Tyler Farrar and Alessandro Pettachi were second and third, finishing in the same time.

There was no change in the overall standings. Thomas Voeckler held onto his yellow jersey, providing one more day of delight for his French compatriots. He is followed by Frank Schleck, 1:49 behind, Cadel Evans (2:06) and Andy Schleck (2:15). Last year’s champ Alberto Contado is seventh, four minutes back.

With a day of rest coming Monday, the contenders played it safe, riding together and recovering after a tortuous mountain race in the Pyrenees on Saturday. Without fuss, they left the stage to the sprinters.

But first, everybody had to get within striking distance of the finish line.

On windy days, Tour cycling coaches said Sunday morning, it’s best for a team to race in a slightly diagonal formation, building a solid wall against the winds, a configuration called an echelon.

HTC set a strong pace this way at the front of the pack, forming an alliance with the Voeckler’s Europcar team, which was eager to simply protect its man. Such alliances are common among teams with mutual interests. “In the first half, we worked with Europcar,” Cavendish said. “In the second half, we were on our own.”

Approaching the finish, HTC-Highroad’s Mark Renshaw, as he almost always does, allowed Cavendish to draft off his back wheel, as the pair surged by Philippe Gilbert of Belgium, until the final straightaway.

After that, Cavendish’s raw speed was good enough to beat a challenge by Farrar, the American who upset Cavendish in a sprint finish on July 4, in the third of this year’s 21 Tour stages.

Cavendish, a former British track champion from the Isle of Man, has now amassed 19 wins in four years, an all-time record. A change in tactics has helped. In the old days, Tour winners like Eddy Merckx went for stage wins every day. Merckx, who won five Tours, finished with 34 stage triumphs.

Top riders no longer compete voraciously for individual stage wins. They prefer to win one stage by a hefty margin, and then play it safe from there. Lance Armstrong, for example, won 22 stages while carrying home seven overall titles.

It is practically impossible to win back-to-back mountain stages because the effort required for the first victory is too draining for another triumph the next day.

Sprinters, though, need only raise their game for minute or two.

After 1,651 miles of racing, this Tour is still undecided, with much of the focus on Voeckler, the 32-year-old veteran Frenchman, who has surprised rivals by hanging to the yellow jersey given to the rider with the lowest cumulative time.

He has completed the first two weeks in an average speed a little over 25 miles per hour, which will shrink in the mountains. By comparison, Armstrong won his seventh and last Tour with an average speed of 26.1 mph.

“There’s no way he can keep this up in the Alps,” Andy Schleck told French radio on Saturday night.

After a rest day on Monday, the Tour resumes Tuesday with a 102-mile stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Gap. It’s a mostly uphill yet relatively soft climb that will benefit riders like Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and Belgium’s Gilbert.

After another moderate Alpine stage, the Tour hits its three most crucial days, two extremely difficult mountain stages, one into the Italian Alps, and one up the Alpe d’Huez, a famed peak.

After that, on Saturday, it’s the individual time trial, followed by the ceremonial ride into Paris Sunday. The time trial is a stronger suit for Contador and Evans, putting pressure on the other contenders, especially the Schleck brothers, to make a move in the Alps.

Comments (5 of 6)

@Newark of Newark -- One of the reasons I started watching the TdF daily many years ago was for the scenery -- now I watch it for the race as well. And with it now being shown in HD, it's even more spectacular. That being said, Phil and Paul *do* talk about the scenery, but typically it's when the helicopter gives them a shot to talk about (e.g., some decrepit castle, a magnificent chalet, an 800 year old cathedral in a 900 year old town or even just the beautiful countryside).

France really is a beautiful country; if I could, I'd move there in a minute and just enjoy the scenery.

1:50 pm July 18, 2011

Newark of Newark wrote:

Hey, hey, really...what I want to know is what do viewers think of the endless running - sometimes incomprehensible commentary - concerning the racing. they should speak more about the gorgious scenery.

1:38 pm July 18, 2011

Regrets wrote:

I wish some of our politicians had rubber on the road.
Better than printing money out of the air.

12:29 pm July 18, 2011

Jason wrote:

Vive le Tour! Crazy mountains on Friday and Saturday.

12:21 pm July 18, 2011

Jan wrote:

The Andy - Frank attacks didn't work on Saturday. If they don't work on stage 18, then stage 19 is huge. 2 shots left. Very exciting TDF.

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